The Sierra Gayle Bouzigard Crime Scene, John Koonce Road in Moss Bluff, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. In November 2009, early one Saturday morning, Ms. Bouzigard's body was found by a bicyclist Bouzigard's body in a roadside ditch. Unrecognizable due to blunt force trauma to the head Ms. Bouzigard, age 19, was identified 24hrs later by the tattoo on her upper torso, comparing it with the local prison tattoo identification records of inmates, where Ms. Bouzigard had been held for a minor offense and had just been released from three days. This information also helped investigators, by narrowing the window of her last known whereabout and contacts to the last 72 hours of he life. There was DNA evidence collected at the crime scene pointing to a single male suspect, it was run and compared against DNA collected on every individual Ms. Bouzigard come into contact with the last three days, and run through CODIS as well, but no one tested positive. The death of Bouzigard, who was 19 when she died, was ruled a homicide, and the case went cold. (continued below)

crime scene

Authorities first believed Bouzigard's killer was a Hispanic male. Bouzigard last known contact was with several Hispanic males the night she died, and they believed the perpetrator had fled back to Mexico before the investigation began and DNA was collected. Six years passed, when a Lab Tech, Monica Quall, working in the forensic lab watched an informational video, called DNA Phenotyping, while eating her lunch one day. DNA Phenotyping, developed by Parabon Nanolabs, produced a genealogical profile, the physical likeness of a the person whose DNA it was, including such traits as geographic ancestry, eye and natural hair color, and even produce a sketch, a computer drawn police sketch of what the suspect looks like. Quall's eyes lit up, and she knew exactly the case to apply this on, and called the detectives working on the Bouzigard cold case. The Parabon test was run on the DNA evidence from the crime scene, and the profile and sketch revealed a white male suspect. This lead, gave detectives a new theory for the case, and based on that sketch, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff's Office received a tip that led them to Blake Anthony Russell, 31. The Sheriff's Office then began surveilling Russell until a DNA sample was secured from an item he discarded. DNA was recovered from this item, and a positive match for the evidence DNA collected at the crime scene was made. On September 7th, 2017, Blake Anthony Russell, was indicted on one count of second degree murder.